Monuments Man: Hillwood's Marvin Ross

Seen The Monuments Men? Now come hear about Marvin Ross, a “Monuments Man” who was also Hillwood's first curator.

Michael Kurtz, former assistant archivist for Records Services at The National Archives and author of America and the Return of Nazi Contraband: The Recovery of Europe’s Cultural Treasures, will discuss the 345 men and women known as the “Monuments Men”—museum directors, curators, art historians, artists, architects, and educators—who tracked and located millions of European artworks and cultural treasures stolen by Hitler and the Nazis during WWII. Joining him is Melissa Wertheimer, assistant archivist at the Walters Art Museum, who will share the fascinating discoveries she made while researching Marvin Ross who served as curator at the Walters before he came to Hillwood in 1958. Her talk will draw on Ross' papers from his time as the Walters' first curator of medieval art and subsequently as their curator of decorative arts.

Hillwood thanks both the Walters Art Museum and the speakers for their generosity in allowing us to offer this program—first presented at the Walters in early February—to a Washington audience.

About the Speakers:

Michael J. Kurtz serves as a visiting professor at the University of Maryland’s College of Information Studies where he directs the archival specialization track in the Masters of Library Science program. Prior to this he worked for 37 years as professional archivist, manager, and senior executive at the National Archives and Records Administration. Dr. Kurtz has published extensively in the areas of American history and archival management, including America and the Return of Nazi Contraband (2006, paperback 2009), The Allied Struggle over Cultural Restitution, 1942-1947 (International Journal of Cultural Property, 2010), The Inheritance of Jewish Property (Cardozo Law Review, 1998), John Gottlieb Morris: Man of God, Man of Science (Maryland Historical Society, 1997), Emancipation in the Federal City (Civil War History, 1978), and Managing Archival and Manuscript Repositories (2004). He lives outside Annapolis, Maryland, with Cherie and their two cats-Samson and Delilah.

Melissa Wertheimer is the archives assistant at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland, through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Her previous archives work was at the Peabody Institute Archives in Baltimore. A professional flutist, Ms. Wertheimer is adjunct flute faculty at Howard Community College in Columbia, Maryland; instructor of music history at the Johns Hopkins University’s Peabody at Homewood Program; and flutist with SONAR new music ensemble in Baltimore, Maryland. Ms. Wertheimer received her Master of Music degree in piccolo from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University and a Bachelor of Music degree in flute from Ithaca College, magna cum laude. Ms. Wertheimer’s performance and research specialties are contemporary music and women composers.